it's friday morning. coming up on "early today," cleveland kidnapper ariel castro goes to prison for the rest of his life, but not before being confronted by one of his victims. >> what does god think of you hypocritically going to church every sunday, coming home to torture us? why the state department is shutting down dozens of american embassies. plus, russia takes edward snowden out of limbo. what anthony weiner has to say about his sexting alias. and robin thicke blurring the lines on late night. >> announcer: this is "early today" for friday, august 2nd. good morning. i'm richard lui.

we have some dramatic moments in an ohio courtroom to talk about. one woman came face to face with her kidnapper. here's nbc's jay gray with more. >> reporter: wiping away tears, michelle knight for the first time since her escape shared the same room with the man that held her captive and terrorized her for a decade. >> i will live on. you will die a little every day as you think about the 11 years and atrocities you inflicted on us. >> reporter: daily physical, mental and emotional abuse outlined in detail for the first time today by prosecutors who showed the inside of what they call ariel castro's house of horrors where knight, amanda berry and gina dejesus were violently assaulted, starved and chained so they couldn't leave. now it's castro who is shackled so he will never see the outside world again.

>> i'm truly sorry for what happened. i'm trying to answer my own questions. i don't know why. >> in a rambling, delusional statement, castro blamed an addiction to pornography for his actions. talked about being a happy, responsible person, called the situation in his home a, quote, normal family and insisted he's not a violent man. >> i am not a monster. i did not prey on these women. sexual addictions -- >> doors were locked, people were chained up, windows were covered. >> reporter: several times during the proceeding, castro interrupted the judge who then told castro, quote, you have extreme narcissism, before finally sentencing him to life plus 1,000 years in prison. jay gray, nbc news, cleveland. dozens of american embassies are being asked to shut down this coming sunday. tracie potts joins us from washington. good morning. what's driving this move?

>> reporter: there's a possible al qaeda threat out there, not a credible one that we're aware of, but it is time specific, sources tell nbc, and that's why they want to shut down a number of embassies on the 4th of august, which is sunday. take a look. if you look at the map you can see the embassies that we got a list of overnight. these are the 15 that would normally be open on a sunday that are going to be shutting down, including iraq, afghanistan and a number of others throughout the middle east and asia. this is what sources are telling us. as a result of ramadan, which ends on wednesday, they think there's some threat that's tied to the end of that muslim month of fasting. but they don't know what's going to happen. they believe the target is an overseas embassy or some sort of overseas post. but they don't know which one specifically. so in an abundance of caution, the state department says it is shutting them all down. richard? >> tracie potts, thank you.

defying requests from the u.s., russia has granted edward snowden temporary asylum. the self plof fessed nsa leaker finally got the proper documents to leave. he's in an undisclosed location this morning. it might help the former contractor to avoid charges here but a diplomatic crisis is still stewing. jim, the g-20 summit is coming up next month. what are the implications to consider? >> reporter: there's no question that snowden's release has strained already difficult relations between the united states and russia and that the united states clearly see the snowden asylum as a slap in the face. the question is just how is the obama administration willing -- how far is it willing to go to hit back and embarrass president vladimir putin? now boycotting a major event like the g-20, which takes place

in early september still seems unlikely to observers. however, obama and putin plan to have talks in moscow just before the g-20 meeting and the white house is already hinting it may cancel that meeting in protest. meanwhile, the american fugitive spent his first night in freedom as an official refugee in russia after almost six weeks being stranded in that moscow airport. his lawyer has said that he's staying in the home of an american ex-pat family here. that he's looking forward to learning russian and ghaith job to support himself. not, get this in information technology, but he's more interested in becoming a human rights activist. richard, back to you. >> jim maceda, thank you. negotiations between alex rodriguez and major league baseball are reportedly stalled. the yankees slugger still wants to cash in on some of the remaining $100 million owed under his contract. both sides remain far apart on the kind of suspension he's

willing to accept. if a deal can't be reached, a-rod could face a permanent ban from baseball. as early as today, the mlb is suspected to suspend a-rod. he is scheduled to play in rehab games tonight and tomorrow. monday could be the new deadline here. heavy rain causing major flooding in northern georgia. more than a half foot of rain fell. it forced firefighters to spend much of the day rescuing trapped residents in that area. bill karins, though, we talked about this earlier. georgia normally a place where you have some nice weather. a lot of sun. not a lot of water. >> usually they complain it's too hot and not enough water. they'll need it in many areas. we talked about fairbanks yesterday. 84 degrees. >> they did it? >> yes, they did. broke the record. 85 there actually. so very impressive. also 67 in anchorage.

so it wasn't everywhere. interior alaska has been very high. juneau around 75. fairbanks yesterday, 31 80-plus degree days this summer. breaks the record. also 13th day 85 or above in fairbanks. that also breaks your record. >> what about today? >> 62 right now. interior alaska going up to 84 once again in fairbanks. so they'll add to the record-breaking summer. also as far as the rest of the west goes, yesterday was very warm in the desert. texas was hot. salt lake was hot. we just got hdone with one of or hottest. a little rain left over in northern portions of idaho. that's about it. a few sprinkles today in seattle. that's a lookbe cooler

because of the clouds. weekend forecast coming up. >> coming up. get ready to get out there for some of you folks in the west. coming up, a rare eruption in yellowstone to tell you about. plus, anthony weiner opening up just a bit about his alter ego.

welcome back to "early today." according to secretary of state john kerry, the u.s. is hoping to end drone strikes in pakistan in the near future. in his remarks to a pakistani tv station thursday, kerry said, quote, it's going to be very, very soon, end quote. anthony weiner cannot seem to escape his sexting alias carlos danger. in a televised interview, wiener said the name was simply a joke in his personal life but rival mayoral candidate reverend eric salgado called the name very insulting to the spanish community. italy's supreme court upheld

a tax fraud charge for silvio berlusconi. the 76-year-old berlusconi is not likely to go to jail as a result of that ruling. most convicted felons in italy over the age of 70 are given house arrest or community service. former new england patriots tight end aaron hernandez has proclaimed his innocence from behind bars. hernandez penned a letter saying this is all part of god's plan, end quote, something good will come out of this, end quote. he is awaiting trial for murder. california's bay area transit workers warn they will go on streak on monday if a new labor deal is not reached. union leaders claim b.a.r.t. management is doing nothing to address safety and wage concerns. b.a.r.t. is the nation's fifth largest rail system and serves more than 400,000 commuters each weekday. yellowstone national park's steamboat geyser erupted for the first time in eight years. the geyser is the world's largest. it shot steaming hot water close to 300 feet into the air there.

no one knows when it will happen again. how much younger will a face-lift make you look? according to a new study, the average improvement from facial plastic surgery is only about three years. researchers in new york city had people look at before and after photos of plastic surgery patients and then guess their ages. three years is not a dramatic difference necessarily. but one of the study's authors says at least one appears younger before -- because of that surgery. >> announcer: "early today" health is brought to you by vagisil. bring yourself back. august 1st proves to be one for the record books. stocks soared to new highs thursday. the s&p 500 propelled above 1700 for the first time. now all eyes are on today's critical july jobs report. depending on those numbers, the fed could start to slow down its

stimulus package. kayla tausche has a look at the rest of the headlines. >> good morning. new york's attorney general is reportedly probing how big u.s. banks use databases to screen out customers. "the new york times" says the investigation centers on whether they're unfairly disqualifying lower income americans looking to open checking or savings accounts. and mortgage rates head back up. the average rate on a 30-year fixed loan hit 4.39% this week. that's up from 4.31% last week. rates spiked in june after the fed hinted it could slow bond purchases this year which has helped keep long-term interest rates low. the energizer bunny stops going and going at sam's club. walmart's warehouse club has stopped selling energizer batteries in favor of duracell. energizer recently lost another top customer, family dollar. richard, back to you. just ahead, a-rod hits the diamond. tennis star roger federer once again proves he's a good guy. sports straight ahead.

balloons from around the world are in eastern france for the largest international gathering of hot air balloons in the world. it's quite a sight. earlier this week, 408 hot air balloons took off all at once filling the sky with color and shattering a world record along the way.

amazing pictures there. now the latest in sports for you. it's a matter of respect at this moment. riley cooper had to try to re-earn some of that at training camp on thursday, a day after a video of him using an offensive slur came out. the same day he apologized for it. locker room responses are mixed so far. cooper will go to sensitivity training and has been find. meet sarah thomas. she could be pro football's first permanent female referee in 2014. the mother of three is training at the saints training camp. she says being female has not inhibited her successful 17-year officiating career. alex rodriguez got to play a little ball thursday. 30 minutes. the stadium padlocked the public shutout. streets in front of steinbrenner field packed with reporters but not so many fans. bars world on a possible suspension, a-rod heads to a couple rehab games. matt holliday and wainwright channeling the incredible hulk.

it worked, though. st. louis pummeling pittsburgh, 13-0. a big egg. the pirates coach overheard saying to his players, he'll have to pump you up, maybe. the cards are a game and a half back from first. beatrice tonoco is 17. her make-a-wish dream was to meet roger federer. she waited a year and federer gave her that wish. he flew her to london and volleyed with her at centre court. beatrice said after, i love you and i will never, ever forget this day. you know, the seventh inning stretch, you get a hot dog, maybe a beer. nah. that's a snore. how about propose to your girlfriend. would you say yes? she does. and if you like that idea, well, fenway only allows one proposal per game so you've got to be quick. the 50 greatest musical performers, plus jimmy fallon put a new twist on robin

thicke's hit song "blurred lines."

welcome back. let me take you through your weekend forecast. a few showers and storms will be hit and miss today. a little monsoonal moisture around tucson and phoenix. showers around seattle. cooler temperature bess hind this storm system that's kicked up to the north. it's brought down cooler air from canada. as far as the weekend goes, we warm it back up. the northwest looking better.

75 in washington. still warm in interior california. forecast has not changed for any coastal locations there in california, even into sunday. we remain status quo. temperature even in los angeles has been on the cooler side as we go throughout the summer and interior sections will be warm but not oppressively hot from reno to boise to salt lake city. some good weather for the last month of our summer vacation. first weekend of august. >> slow it down. >> it's going fast. hollywood heavyweights and a saturday morning cartoon will be competing for box office supremacy. "two guns" starring denzel washington and mark sandburg and "sm "smurfs 2" open this weekend. denzel's movie is not the only reason he's trending in hollywood news. he turned down a role in "fast and furious 7." >> why? >> maybe it's not quite his kind of movie. >> universal releases that film

in july 2014. i'm not sure what role he'd play. >> a cameo. >> he'd probably want more than that. director james cameron announcing he'll be taking movie goers back to pandora, how many times? for three more sequels. >> we need cash register noise. >> i think we'll run out of zeros. avatar 2, 3 and 4. that's going to be a lot of money. "rolling stone" magazine has made bruce springsteen the boss of its most recent list. the new jersey singer tops its greatest live acts. prince, neil young are also in the stop five. >> i'm a big u2 fan. >> all those are good, though, bill. >> i'm not saying they're not. i saw prince in concert. >> i saw prince, u2, all good. finally, robin thicke putting a new twist on his song "blurred lines." check it out wtih jimmy fallon and the roots. ♪

♪ maybe i'm going deaf maybe i'm going blind maybe i'm out of my mind ♪ ♪ okay now here we go everybody get up ♪ >> i think that was in the roots dressing room. they practiced in that room. they practiced in that room. >> it's great, man. it sound fantastic. >> the first time i heard it, it was growing on me. >> all we need was brian williams in there popping in. >> this is "early today." we hope it's just your first stop of the day today on nbc.

leading the news in the houston chronicles, texas system running out of execution drugs. the texas department of criminal justice says its remaining supply of pentobarbital will expire in september and as of yet no alternatives have been found. referendum sparks brawl. a fight broke out among taiwanese lawmakers over a controversial to build a fourth nuclear power plant near taipei. it's pretty common in the taiwanese parliament. sometimes they'll throw shoes. a little water. trying to douse it there. recapping our top stories -- ariel castro in court yesterday, formally sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus

1,000 years. in a rambling 20-minute statement, castro said he was not a monster. defying the request from the u.s., russia has granted edward snowden temporary asylum. the self-professed nsa leaker got the proper documents to leave. he is at an undisclosed location this morning. and a possible terror threat is closing all u.s. embassies across the middle east on sunday. the move affects dozens of embassies and consulates, primarily in the middle east and north africa. what looks like some bears are after more than just picnic baskets and honey these days. a colorado restaurant surveillance camera catching a bear hanging out midday picking through dumpsters. it then stealthily here dragging them -- drags it away, the entire thing. better than dumpster diving, wouldn't you say? it was the second night in a row the bear stole that entire dumpster at this restaurant. owners say they plan to chain up the dum steres. >> got to be like a winnie the pooh joke or yogi and boo-hoo

joke. >> it shows how smart they are dragging that away. why dive right there? >> he wanted to be out of the camera. no one wants to see you jumping in the dumpster. >> he knows the cameras are there. >> looking ahead, the republican-led house will vote again today on the health care reform bill after dozens of previous votes. this will be the 40th time they vote on a bill that would repeal or replace a part or all of president obama's affordable care act. a key decision in the whitey bulger trial. defense lawyers will tell the judge whether bulger will testify in his trial for 19 alleged murders. happy birthday to marie louis-parker. judge ito turns 63 and peter o'toole is 91. coming up on the "today" show, a look at the discovery of what think is a cross of jesus christ and kicking it country with the band perry performing live on the plaza. i'm richard lui along with the great bill karins here. thanks for watching "early

today." have a great weekend.

. new this morning, a south bay business raided overnight. now the feds are getting involved because of something found inside. what police have just told us next. last-ditch efforts under way to try to keep a b.a.r.t. strike from happening. we'll let you know what's being done right now to help the bay area commuters get around the gridlock. google glass banned from a google event. >> right. let's take you live outside from a spanning look over the spectacular bay bridge. actually a little traffic. maybe people hoping to get to work early so they can go home early on this friday, august 27bd. this is "today in the bay." good friday morning.